Structural basis for serpin inhibitor activity

The mechanism of formation and the structures of serpin-inhibitor complexes are not completely understood, despite detailed knowledge of the structures of a number of cleaved and uncleaved inhibitor, noninhibitor, and latent serpins. It has been proposed from comparison of inhibitor and noninhibitor serpins in the cleaved and uncleaved forms that insertion of strand s4A into preexisting beta-sheet A is a requirement for serpin inhibitor activity. We have investigated the role of this strand in formation of serpin-proteinase complexes and in serpin inhibitor activity through homology modeling of wild type inhibitor, mutant substrate, and latent serpins, and of putative serpin-proteinase complexes. These models explain the high stability of the complexes and provide an understanding of substrate behavior in serpins with point mutations in s4A and of latency in plasminogen activator inhibitor I.